Greetings everyone! This is my first ship mod for FTL and I decided to start simple by making a variation of an enemy ship for player use to play around with an idea that, as far as I can tell, no one else has really done yet. I give you...

...the new Deimos! Now with...

...two extra layouts - the Catalyst* and Coercion*!

-LORE - SKIP IF YOU WANT JUST TECHNICAL DETAILS AND DOWNLOAD-

As far as I can tell, the Lanius are split between those who believe in either peaceful co-existence or indiscriminate scavenging. These bombers are all modified variants in use by the former to aid their Federation allies against both their brethren and the Rebels.

The Deimos is a retrofitted bomber whose crew, inspired by the Mantis, equipped the ship with a 4-person teleporter. This simple reconfiguration was deemed powerful enough to become the mark to which fleet variants of the bomber were to adhere to. Its simplicity is beautiful, and now the Rebels must face the true terror of massive Lanius boarding parties.

The Catalyst is a revised conceptualization of utilizing the power of fire for the Lanius, succeeding the Asphyxia whose combat data was obtained long after it had been seized. It was clear that the Asphyxia was potent, but lacking finesse; fires took too long to accomplish the draining of oxygen from an enemy vessel. Thus, it was determined by a Lanius weapons designer to tackle the problem from a different angle: with bombs. The Arson Bomb was thus devised to work in tandem with a bomber's standard Mind Control system in order to dismantle enemy operations and prevent recovery. Perhaps now this unexpected angle of attack from the Lanius will prove to be the undoing of many enemies.

The Coercion was a prototype in the works that was being outfitted with the complete standard kit for its class, with two exceptions. The first was that the cloning bay had been replaced with a med bay, complete with a reverse-engineered Med Bot Dispersal system designed to keep non-Lanius passengers, crew, or prisoners alive and further boarder-proof the ship. The second change was destined to make this ship terrifying as the apex bomber: the Taser Bomb. With the Stun Bomb falling quickly out of use, the Lanius developed from scratch a new design that had stronger ionization and stunning effects that was capable of causing a breach even in the sturdiest of ship materials. Using mind control and a Lanius boarding crew, enemies could be lured or controlled against their will into a trap - where they would be paralyzed for a virtual eternity as they breathed their last. Unexpectedly, the lead designer stole the ship far ahead of schedule and rode out with abysmal specs and a weak reactor - the only thing that may save him now is luck and a good sense of timing.

-GENERAL-

A few things to keep in mind before you go suffocating entire fleets worth of thieves, crooks, bodyguards, corrupt cops, and dastardly rebels.

- All three ships have only 20 hull strength as they are not massive cruisers.- Drones, Hacking, and Sensors cannot be installed on any of these ships. While I have tried, the Drones system continually appears in stores - do not buy it as you will only waste your scrap.- Oxygen and Doors can both be bought for reduced prices at stores. Airlocks have been installed as well.- Each ship has a color corresponding shield and cloak outline, just for fun.

-BEGINNING STRATEGIES-

Deimos

The Deimos is simple and cathartic: beam in, suffocate and murder everything, beam out. You have the pleasure of using a four-person Lanius boarding party and you must abuse it to the hilt if you're going to survive. You have upgraded piloting to give you a small odd to work with in avoiding enemy fire, but you must either end battles as quickly as you can or disable critical systems on the enemy ship to prevent a worst-case scenario. That said, your massive Lanius boarding party can hold up quite well and you have a quick-charging Breach Bomb to disable systems in a jiffy, so be picky about the weapons you will take to the final battle.

As is the case with all three bombers, the Deimos is only able to install the systems available to the enemy variant of the Lanius bomber. This essentially means that, in terms of customization, you can pick whether or not you want to buy Oxygen to support other races or leave it out to keep your ship relatively boarder and fire proof, and that's it. Don't be too disappointed, as you can buy Cloaking, Mind Control, and Doors, all of which are perfect for this boarding ship for avoiding damage, reversing enemy Mind Control (or just taking over one of their own), and having insurance if you buy Oxygen, respectively.

Catalyst

This fire bomber depends on disabling critical systems and burning enemy crews in order to win its early fights. Fortunately, it is a simple process as your bomb launcher fires three system-damaging bombs that can ignite fires and stun crew for a short time. If any enemy tries to put out the fire, Mind Control them. Your primary worries starting out are Zoltan ships and ships armed with upgraded Cloaking, who can stall you to prepare a disabling volley.

While the bomb is decent on its own, where it shines is finding the right complements to make it ideal in breaking down enemy defenses. Weakening enemy crew with fires and Mind Control boarding for weapons fire will allow you to kill even Rock crews for boarding rewards. A Zoltan Shield bypass goes without saying in order to render one of your biggest counters completely helpless to your whims. Another benefit is that the layout is quite interconnected in comparison to the other bombers, allowing you to move about with ease despite its seeming randomization.

Coercion

The Coercion is an interesting beast. You start off with the full Bomber kit, with Cloaking, Mind Control, and Teleporter ready and waiting to be abused. This would normally be rather overpowered, but is actually capped by an underwhelming reactor that severely limits what can be used at any given time. On top of that, you have only a single Lanius crewman and no cloning bay, making it practically the opposite of the Deimos. Traditional tactics are not going to work here.

However, what you have in your hands is a powerful tool and the keystone to your victory: the Taser Bomb. With three ion damage, guaranteed breach, and a 20-second stun, the Taser Bomb opens the door to an unorthodox boarding strategy that only requires your one Lanius to pull off. But, of course, to excel with the Coercion, you must utilize all the tools you are given to kill entire crews before something breaks horribly.

It's a fairly simple process. You will need to buy time for the Taser Bomb to charge, with remaining power focused in Engines, Teleporter, and Cloaking. When the enemy fires their first volley, cloak (and pray) to dodge it. While cloaked, send your Lanius to board the enemy ship. Reroute power from Engines to Mind Control and take over any first responder. You and your temporary ally will attract the attention of the rest of the crew (depending on both crew and room sizes).

By this point, the Taser Bomb should be ready and no one should be at their helm. Launch the bomb at the room of commotion (which should ideally be the Weapons room) and keep everyone situated there; if you can, pull your Lanius out just before the bomb goes off (I usually move him after the bomb's distinctive "whe-wha-whom" sound effect). If all goes well, the bomb will go off on the entire enemy crew.

Whether or not you pulled your Lanius out is irrelevant as the room will soon vent and the enemy crew will quickly lose health. With the exception of Rockmen (and Crystals and other Lanius, obviously), the enemy crew will most likely die within the period of time it takes for the stun to wear off. If you used the bomb on their Weapons room, you buy the time needed for another full charge to have another go if needed. Regardless, if you played your cards right, it will only take one volley to win a battle (usually).

This strategy is brutally effective, even on larger ships such as the Rebel Cruiser (as seen in ResidentEvil063's video), and can last all the way up to the Flagship. Once your reactor is up to specs and you're on the road to kitting your ship out, the Coercion will quickly become a monster that cannot be stopped. Until then however, it would be best to work on your sense of timing and pray that the Weapons room never gets hit. It's a fun and challenging ship and it really must be played to appreciate its weapon of choice.

-

I've had fun so far making these ships and there are still some things I'd like to change in due time. Any feedback, tips, and/or tricks would be appreciated!

FederationScumX1999 wrote:- You cannot install Hacking, Drones, Sensors, Backup Battery, or Doors on this ship. Buying any of those systems will simply waste your scrap.

This can be "solved" fairly easily if you want to prevent people from buying these. Also makes it so the mod can't be used in conjunction with other ships... so installing this one would mean you have to play with this ship. Don't think that's a bad thing as I for one generally don't install multiple ship mods at the same time.Don't know if you used Superluminal for this and if so if you saved your ship as a resource folder or straight away as an .ftl file.Either way, if you want to fix this, feel free to PM me and I'll let you know what to do.I'd rather not fill this thread with tips for modding and such.

Still, (and I'm guessing this is for balance reason), you have empty rooms left. You can stick some systems in there if wanted. People like options...Also noticed that medbay hasn't been assigned. I know, it wouldn't make sense to get it. But still, considering it can share a room with the clonebay, it's not to difficult and would get rid of 1 system that can't be bought.

FederationScumX1999 wrote:This ship only has 20 hull strength as it is not a massive cruiser.

Nice touch, remember that you can adjust the hull bar as well to fit to the new hull amount.

I do wonder a bit if this isn't stupendously OP.4 Lanius = a room with 4 breaches in it. Combined with a clone bay and DNA data bank... that's some serious starting power.An interesting concept I ended up doing once was no clonebay/medbay but instead a recon TP.You can check the results on my Mother Hen.

The downsides seems to be fairly odd though :With no airlocks and no way of opening them if they were there, fighting fires and boarders can be complicated.A boarding ship incapable of getting sensors...Bit odd that drone parts are completely irrelevant on this ship. Then again, they can be so on any ship depending on what systems you get.

All in all, it seems like an interesting ship to give a go.And by all means : Don't feel offended by anything I have said, this is a personal opinion and opinions differ. Consider the above food for thought and nothing more.And feel free to ask (me or anyone else) for help if you need it. This community is really, really friendly.

Amateur modder and Let's player (with a substantial FTL and ItB LP featuring countless mods).Channel linkA list of all my mods can be found here.

Biohazard063 wrote:Don't know if you used Superluminal for this and if so if you saved your ship as a resource folder or straight away as an .ftl file.Either way, if you want to fix this, feel free to PM me and I'll let you know what to do.

I did use Superluminal, and I believe I did save one version of the ship as a resource folder. I'll be sure to ask you about that at some point.

Biohazard063 wrote:Also noticed that medbay hasn't been assigned. I know, it wouldn't make sense to get it. But still, considering it can share a room with the clonebay, it's not to difficult and would get rid of 1 system that can't be bought.

Oh? I thought Med Bay and Clone Bay automatically shared the same slot since they can be exchanged. Didn't know that you have to set them both up.

Biohazard063 wrote:Nice touch, remember that you can adjust the hull bar as well to fit to the new hull amount.

I'll have to ask ya how to do that as well.

Biohazard063 wrote:Still, (and I'm guessing this is for balance reason), you have empty rooms left. You can stick some systems in there if wanted. People like options...

Biohazard063 wrote:I do wonder a bit if this isn't stupendously OP.4 Lanius = a room with 4 breaches in it. Combined with a clone bay and DNA data bank... that's some serious starting power.

Biohazard063 wrote:The downsides seems to be fairly odd though :With no airlocks and no way of opening them if they were there, fighting fires and boarders can be complicated.A boarding ship incapable of getting sensors...Bit odd that drone parts are completely irrelevant on this ship. Then again, they can be so on any ship depending on what systems you get.

The decisions for the empty rooms, layout, available systems, and drone parts being rendered useless (except for the occasional trade) was something done after playing a few games (including a full victorious Hard game with this version of the ship). Being a smaller ship, I tried to avoid excessive clutter from jamming systems into every available room. I wanted to keep to the original Lanius Bomber layout as well, though I did initially take liberties with it as shown in this picture -

I just found the drones to be distracting (well, that and the constant deaths of non-Lanius crew) from what the ship was supposed to be about so I simplified it with the only liberty taken being the installation of an Oxygen system. In retrospect, I could probably leave out the Backup DNA because of that. All things considered, the weaknesses are consistent with this class of ship as encountered in-game, but perhaps I'm just playing it a bit too safe.

Biohazard063 wrote:All in all, it seems like an interesting ship to give a go.And by all means : Don't feel offended by anything I have said, this is a personal opinion and opinions differ. Consider the above food for thought and nothing more.And feel free to ask (me or anyone else) for help if you need it. This community is really, really friendly.

Not at all, I appreciate the feedback quite a bit. I've seen and played quite a lot of work here (including your Mother Hen, which was clever with its artillery btw) so I am looking forward to pushing the boundaries as much as everyone else.

The future hinges on each of a thousand choices. Living is making choices! - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

I kinda feel the breach bomb is a bit to much or not needed. with 4 lanius (lets say in a 4 man room) they suck power faster then a breach already so it's just wasting missiles at this point... I think maybe using a firebomb could be interesting because the room the lanius are in will not be flamable due to no oxygen but other rooms of the enemy ship will be on fire.

Another thing is just regular bombs could do... I do quite like the nice touch of lower hull as well as having a bomb on a bomber... I feel slightly sad that most 'bombers' that are player controlled often have no bombs.

Good job on your first mod!

I do slightly wounder where this ship is in terms of balance. However the 4 man teleporter... 4 lanius... etc... I think maybe lower the crew to 3 lanius nad just hope to see another lanius in your travels for the perfect boarding party.

This ship in some ways mirrors the crystal type B, which has 4 crystal, a 4 man teleporter, and many systems. But it's draw back was no weapons and a bunch of other stuff.

R4V3-0N wrote:I kinda feel the breach bomb is a bit to much or not needed. with 4 lanius (lets say in a 4 man room) they suck power faster then a breach already so it's just wasting missiles at this point... I think maybe using a firebomb could be interesting because the room the lanius are in will not be flamable due to no oxygen but other rooms of the enemy ship will be on fire.

Another thing is just regular bombs could do... I do quite like the nice touch of lower hull as well as having a bomb on a bomber... I feel slightly sad that most 'bombers' that are player controlled often have no bombs.

Hmm, the Fire Bomb premise is rather intriguing. If I did B and C variants, I think that idea could apply to one of them. Fire does remove oxygen over a period of time if its been going on long enough and the Lanius themselves could extinguish it for whatever reason if they were caught in it. Essentially, it would be a combo based entirely around distraction - with enemy crew either dealing with the Lanius doing their thing or the fire destroying a system entirely, but not both. Small bomb is a safer alternative as well for this A variant though.

R4V3-0N wrote:I do slightly wounder where this ship is in terms of balance. However the 4 man teleporter... 4 lanius... etc... I think maybe lower the crew to 3 lanius nad just hope to see another lanius in your travels for the perfect boarding party.

This ship in some ways mirrors the crystal type B, which has 4 crystal, a 4 man teleporter, and many systems. But it's draw back was no weapons and a bunch of other stuff.

You make a good point. I think I'll make that change as, at the very least, it doesn't entirely take away this ship's appeal. It would add a nice, adaptive challenge of either finding a fourth Lanius for the full set or a quirky fourth whose talents could extend to other tactics. Thanks for the feedback.

The future hinges on each of a thousand choices. Living is making choices! - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

You could always remove the weapons system entirely...Or create a custom weapon. Possibilities are endless.

It will show up in stores at a base price of 20 scrap (which can be adjusted), level of weapons system when you acquire it will depend on what you set it as starting power.Same goes for any system really... most noticeable with drones as beginners will often forget to set that to 2 when the ship doesn't start with it.

Amateur modder and Let's player (with a substantial FTL and ItB LP featuring countless mods).Channel linkA list of all my mods can be found here.

the problem with no weapon system is UI bugs (especially when you add drones)A good way to have 'no' weapon system but have it is just have no weapons at the start, have the weapon system there, but only at 1 starting power and it requires a chunk of scrap to upgrade it.

Another possible change is to remove the 4 man teleporter for a 2 man, however I think it's what makes this particular ship special- I think having 3 lanius crew or 4 with no weapons could work better. I am actually thinking now what happens when you have a crystal mixed lanius crew... obviously not for this mod but it was an idea that came to me... no O2, crystals slightly handle no O2 better... crystal lock down effect... etc

I've decided that there is going to be three layouts (A, B, C) and that they will all consistently revolve around Lanius boarding, each with different facets. So far, the first two layouts are done while I'm working on recoloring for a third layout to be made.

Aside from rebalancing, I've tried to iron out some of the rougher edges caused by the facts that certain systems cannot be installed on the Lanius Boarder (and, by design, the Lanius Incinerator and Lanius Taser). I mainly wanted to stay true to the original enemy Lanius Bomber encountered in game to maintain a certain identity. As for fixes, I'm simply trying to remove unusable systems while making others available for purchase (at a reduced price) with mixed results.

If anyone knows the specifics of disabling systems for player use (meaning, they cannot be bought or found) I would appreciate any advice on the matter.

The future hinges on each of a thousand choices. Living is making choices! - Captain Jean-Luc Picard